Locations that expect any appreciable amount of snow during the year must keep roads drivable during the winter. For those locations receiving only a small amount of snow, it is typical to remove snow from roads using a plow or blade attached to a truck or other vehicle. Typically the weather in such locations is warm enough to melt the snow after a few hours or days. However, simply pushing the snow to the side of a road may not be an acceptable solution in locations that receive a great deal of snowfall or that experience sustained sub-freezing temperatures. Snowplows are notorious for plowing thick banks of snow or frozen slush off of a main street such that entrances to side streets and driveways are effectively blocked. Furthermore, narrow streets may have no room along their sides to place the plowed snow. Pushing large amounts of snow into piles is an especial challenge for owners of parking lots and airports, where it may be difficult to push the snow to a place that will not interfere with the normal operation of the parking lot or airport.
One alternative to plowing or pushing snow off of a surface has been to remove the snow to another location. This may be done by loading the snow into dump trucks and having the dump trucks unload the snow at a remote location. This is typically done in parking lots, where large piles of plowed snow may otherwise interfere with the use of the parking lot. This solution requires a high commitment in machinery and manpower, and is therefore an expensive method of snow removal. Another solution has been to spread gravel or other particulate upon the snow surface to provide traction for vehicles driving upon the plowed or unplowed surfaces. However the gravel damages the vehicles when propelled by the spinning tires of the vehicles, and the gravel must be cleaned off of the surface when the snow eventually melts. The gravel also clogs up sewer drainage systems. Still another method is to spread a chemical upon the snow to encourage the early melting of the snow. Known snow-melting chemicals may be hazardous to the health of humans and animals, and some of the chemicals are corrosive to automobiles. Furthermore, most such chemicals work only at temperatures close to the freezing temperature of water. Such chemicals are therefore unreliable in colder climates.